I’ve transited from having a higher diploma in marketing through project accounting in the mining sector to being a law academic

On Tuesday, 3 May, I presented two books to the public namely: Nigeria and International Humanitarian Law, authored by me and forwarded by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Mr Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, and Modern Nigeria Family Law, which I co-authored with Prof (Associate) Adakole Eje Odike, and is

 forwarded by Hon Mr Justice Mary Odili.

With those books, I now have four books which I authored and six co-authored. All in law. 

I am Agu Gab Agu, a professor of law at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT).

But I did not start my academic pursuits with law. 

I had bagged first a Diploma of the Institute of Management and Technology (DIMT) in business administration and later a Higher Diploma of the Institute of Management and Technology (HDIMT) in marketing. The Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) was founded in 1973 by the then East Central State Government under Mr (later Ajie) Ukpabi Asika as Administrator, when the College of Technology was fused with the Institute of Administration. 

I, however, did not do much with those qualifications.

I am from Enugu Ngwo, part of which is in the Enugu North Local Government and another part in Udi Local Government, both in Enugu State. Until 1938 or so, Enugu Municipality used to be called Enugu Ngwo. If you move from here (Enugu) to Awka (in Anambra State), and mention that you are coming from Enugu, many people would hardly listen to you, because there are Enugu-Ukwu, Enugu-Agidi, etc. Over time, the British colonialists felt that there was no need for the compound name for this Enugu, so they excised Ngwo. In the village, however, we still answer Enugu Ngwo, and that is where I was born in 1956 and attended St Mary’s Primary School. I later attended St Stephen’s, Ogoloma, Okrika, in Rivers State. My dad’s younger brother, who was then a bachelor, was working in Ogoloma as a water superintendent and in 1965 I was sent to live with him. I guess I was sent to him because as I was the first male child of my parent’s seven children, my dad probably felt that I was being over-pampered. In 1966, my uncle was transferred to a station in Rumuola, still in Rivers State, and I attended another school briefly, and the war started in July 1967. By 1970, when the war had ended, I was back in Ngwo where I returned to St. Mary’s to complete my primary education. During the war, I did some classes around Orlu. At the end of 1970, I sat for entrance into Colliery Comprehensive Secondary School, Ngwo. I finished in July 1975 and it was in September 1975 that I got into the IMT. Interestingly, I had an admission to read political science in the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) but it did not come out early, and then, IMT was being promoted as one of the better institutions for higher learning in the mould of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and truly, then it was; everybody wanted in there. I certainly was fascinated. 

At IMT, I had contested for the position of the public relations officer of the Students Union which I was sure I would win but I lost. The winner, I think his name was Imoudu but he was not the son of the famous Labour Leader Michael Imoudu, sought my partnership and that was how I got involved in the publication of the campus newsletter, which started as one-pager which we pasted on the board at the refectory but, after a while, I started to cyclostyle it. Eventually, that publication was proscribed.

You can say that I caught the writing bug from there because when I was doing my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme at the Central Bank of Nigeria in Cross River State, I was writing for the state-owned newspaper, Chronicle as a stringer. I was reporting to Clement Ebri who was then the features editor and he ater became the state governor. It gave me some sort of celebrity status in Calabar.  

I later joined the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC) as a project accountant at their Enyigba Mines (which is in the present day Ebonyi State). This was a lead-zinc project.  I became a project accountant because of my DIMT in business administration and my stint at the CBN. But then, what was it all about? Single-entry bookkeeping. Even the person I reported to did not know much accounting than me. I was pointing out some of his errors without knowing that was not allowed in the civil service. 

I found the job quite exciting that I did not want to move. In fact, I became the acting project manager. My townsman, C C Onoh, at whose instance I had left CBN for the Mining Corporation where he was the chairman – he had this adage that a chief or prince in hell is better than a servant in heaven – had advised that I could join the corporation and grow with it. 

But then when he opened his Rex Onoh Breweries  Limited – which was actually into the production of carbonated drinks – he pulled me from the corporation to join the firm. That was how I became all-in-all at Rex Onoh: company secretary, head of marketing, administration and all that. 

From when I was doing the DIMT, I had been having the hitch to go read law. It was when I joined Rex Onoh that I decided that it was time to take the plunge before I got too sucked into enjoying life. I was a bachelor and I had everything at my disposal; I had a personal Honda car and at NMC, my official vehicle was a Land Rover, which I could not use outside of work. My decision to go for law was reinforced by my realisation that the protection that the public service offered was not available in the private sector and anything could happen. 

I went into full time law at the Anambra State University of Technology (ASUTECH) here in Enugu. That is what became Nnamdi Azikiwe University. I thought we would continue in Enugu so that I could still run around to earn some income but suddenly, after our first year, the faculty was moved to Awka which was then not as developed as it is today. So, I had to learn how to be a student and not a big boy. I finished there and went to Law School in Lagos. There was no accommodation, so I had to shuttle throughout for about nine months from Surulere – my cousin was living at Rotimi Street in the Ojuelegba area - to Victoria Island. Our set had a suppressed calendar, from January to September. Instead of going for internship, we had a straight academic session. 

By now, I was already married, and my wife was teaching in Udi, so I had to return to Enugu to practise. I have remained on Zik Avenue since then; fist at No. 43, and now at No. 39. We have spent at least fifteen years in this building. 

You see, I have always had the passion to be an academic, but the push was not there because I was looking at the monetary aspect of practice.

Somehow, things that happened in my life have been kind of fortuitous. One early morning, I had gone to C C Onoh’s new library at Ngwo, as he wanted to show me something to do for him, when Prof Christian Nwachukwu Okeke, founding dean of the Schools of Law at Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) came to discuss with my uncle (Onoh) I greeted him and after his discussion, he asked and when I greeted him, he asked C C Onoh why would he not allow me to come and teach. Onoh said he was not standing in my way to do whatever I wanted. He asked me to come around to ESUT, and long story short, I started my graduate assistantship there. In the faculty, we were only three, including Prof Okeke.

I was doing my master’s in law there and another master’s in international diplomacy in Abia State University and Ph D in Ebonyi State University. In 2012, I was the first to bag a Ph D in the faculty of law in the university. 

How has the transition been for me? Perhaps I would have made more money in marketing but, within me, I am satisfied that I have done what I should, and it has helped people who are close to me, and others in the society, to find some succour. When I find someone who needs to get justice but cannot afford to pay for my services but would rather leave everything to God, I will do such a case pro bono. Those who can pay, I make sure they pay well.